British Airways Harrier Project [GPS Bag Tracker]
Dec 20, 2019, 6:13 am
#17
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Mexico
Programs: BAEC Gold / Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,543
The number you mention - which is not that far off the truth - is the number of short-shipped bags, for which a live tracking system has actually gone live internally earlier in the year (and that will, eventually, include partner airlines' too). But the key point is that those 300,000 bags are not lost in the sense of "don't know where they are". The airline, or its partners, know where they are, but the knowledge - up until now - might not be fully widespread.
For instance, you do a transfer DTW-ORD-LHR. Your bag is late out of T3, doesn't get to T5 in ORD in time to get on the BA296; AA knows where the bag is, BA ORD knows where the bag is when it hits them, but BA at large doesn't. So when you land, unless BA ORD has received the bag and created a "Forward message" for its new flight, BA Arrivals in T5 wouldn't really know what happened to the bag, because BA LHR Arrivals have no way of checking the automated status messages that the Chicago ORD baggage system is generating. But others do. Nominally, ORD.
The system that is being implemented internally allows everyone in BA to know that. It gets all the baggage scans from all BA airports and throws it into a database, where people can see where bags are in real time. Eventually I understand, or so it was when I left, that it'll wind up being used at all but the smallest airports and, even more eventually, it'll end up to the customer too.
What "project Harrier" does, instead, is to pre-empt the full loss of bags. The number is not 300,000 in your example, but more like 3,000 in your example (can't say the actual number though but it's lower than that). Bags like these go missing when they have no identifier (i.e. the bag tag is not there anymore and the bag look & feel doesn't match any lost report in the airline's database), and they're extremely rare. I say it again: when a bag is short-shipped during a transfer, there is knowledge of the whereabouts of the bag; that knowledge is not widespread, but it'll be once the tracking system is fully rolled out. What "Harrier" does, instead, is telling you "If your bag is short-shipped, and if it's no longer attached to its bag tag, and if no one recognises it as your bag based on your description, if you have this tracker, and if the tracker is active, then we can find it". Assuming that the tracker has enough power to penetrate the several meters of reinforced concrete and steel where the baggage systems normally are and where radio frequencies normally have trouble getting into.
I think there is, though, one point about "Harrier" that would be useful, and that is out-of-gauge baggage (and that was the feedback people smarter than me made when it was originally discussed). In most airports, bulky baggage doesn't go through the system and is very much a manual process. Where there's manual processes there's error and short-shipments for bulky bags are normally much higher (think 5-8%) than 'normal bags', which is an utter shame because it's mostly baby strollers, pushchairs and mobility aids and if there's one bag that should never miss its flight it's somebody's wheelchair. In 13901 Airways I'd care a lot more about a wheelchair than an F-passenger's bag, personally. That tracker would be great in those instances, provided it's also monitored by those responsible for moving the bags.
sorry, I wrote the Iliad again...
For instance, you do a transfer DTW-ORD-LHR. Your bag is late out of T3, doesn't get to T5 in ORD in time to get on the BA296; AA knows where the bag is, BA ORD knows where the bag is when it hits them, but BA at large doesn't. So when you land, unless BA ORD has received the bag and created a "Forward message" for its new flight, BA Arrivals in T5 wouldn't really know what happened to the bag, because BA LHR Arrivals have no way of checking the automated status messages that the Chicago ORD baggage system is generating. But others do. Nominally, ORD.
The system that is being implemented internally allows everyone in BA to know that. It gets all the baggage scans from all BA airports and throws it into a database, where people can see where bags are in real time. Eventually I understand, or so it was when I left, that it'll wind up being used at all but the smallest airports and, even more eventually, it'll end up to the customer too.
What "project Harrier" does, instead, is to pre-empt the full loss of bags. The number is not 300,000 in your example, but more like 3,000 in your example (can't say the actual number though but it's lower than that). Bags like these go missing when they have no identifier (i.e. the bag tag is not there anymore and the bag look & feel doesn't match any lost report in the airline's database), and they're extremely rare. I say it again: when a bag is short-shipped during a transfer, there is knowledge of the whereabouts of the bag; that knowledge is not widespread, but it'll be once the tracking system is fully rolled out. What "Harrier" does, instead, is telling you "If your bag is short-shipped, and if it's no longer attached to its bag tag, and if no one recognises it as your bag based on your description, if you have this tracker, and if the tracker is active, then we can find it". Assuming that the tracker has enough power to penetrate the several meters of reinforced concrete and steel where the baggage systems normally are and where radio frequencies normally have trouble getting into.
I think there is, though, one point about "Harrier" that would be useful, and that is out-of-gauge baggage (and that was the feedback people smarter than me made when it was originally discussed). In most airports, bulky baggage doesn't go through the system and is very much a manual process. Where there's manual processes there's error and short-shipments for bulky bags are normally much higher (think 5-8%) than 'normal bags', which is an utter shame because it's mostly baby strollers, pushchairs and mobility aids and if there's one bag that should never miss its flight it's somebody's wheelchair. In 13901 Airways I'd care a lot more about a wheelchair than an F-passenger's bag, personally. That tracker would be great in those instances, provided it's also monitored by those responsible for moving the bags.
sorry, I wrote the Iliad again...
In fact I couldn't have explained it at all.
Dec 29, 2019, 4:30 pm
#19
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 691
comparing the cost of lost baggage at that rate to the cost of the Harrier though...it might make sense!
Dec 30, 2019, 12:42 am
#20
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 7,237
Dec 30, 2019, 1:17 am
#21
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: South East, UK
Programs: BA Gold / GfL, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,432
What about the cost of delayed flights? If a passenger can see their bags have not been loaded they might demand to be offloaded just as the flight is ready to depart.
Jul 12, 2020, 12:05 am
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Newcastle, England
Programs: BAEC, Flying Blue
Posts: 106
Oct 9, 2020, 8:21 am
#28
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: BA Gold, VS Silver, Marriott Ambassador, HH diamond IHG plat
Posts: 637
BA Harrier trial ended?
I've had one for a while. I'm not getting any response from [email protected] and it doesn't respond to the Telegram bot any more. Has the trial ended and the tracker no longer works? I haven't had anything from BA to say anything has changed.
Oct 9, 2020, 8:27 am
#29
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 579
I've had one for a while. I'm not getting any response from [email protected] and it doesn't respond to the Telegram bot any more. Has the trial ended and the tracker no longer works? I haven't had anything from BA to say anything has changed.